The primary reason is one of intended use. Smart phones are are billed as a do anything be your central media device. It sucks to then find out that they deny some things based on *content*. One can usually understand why a smart phone isn't going to play DVD's, not so much that you can't get a playboy magazine because the person who runs the smartphones company thinks you shouldn't be watching that. Further it is apps that a good number want to do and find they can't so it is something they notice. When they (and I include all the smart phone makers - this isn't apple centric) market them as general purpose computing devices that happen to make phone calls people expect them to be general purpose computers.

Game consoles are, well game consoles. When they do other things - like watch movies or surf the internet - that is generally a plus. It's rare someone looks and say "Gosh I wish I could do that on this thing but they will not let me". Few complain that they can't reflash their Blu-ray players, TV's, microwaves, non-smartphones, and most other appliances.

Some will always want to hack around on them, but for the most part being able to run Linux on a PS3 is a irrelevancy to all but a handful of PS3 owners because that isn't what you purchased the device to do. You purchase a smart phone to have a portable computer that makes phone calls.

Isn't this the same people who told me the Tucson shooter was influenced heavily by Palin, the Tea Party people, and was a right wing zealot? If they can't even get that right why believe them now on highly secret and very competent spy stuff?

Frankly if they *were* responsible for this more would be happy than not - given Iran's govt isn't this how we would want them to act instead of bombing them (and surely no one here thinks a nuclear weaponized Iran is a Good Idea)? Iran's Nuclear program makes few happy outside of Iran and such an easy crippling of it with little to no others damaged is more competent than I think most of the western world is capable of. Indeed should we even believe them as to how much it crippled Iran?

It seems to me that the vast majority of what we "know" about this is from people who can't figure out if a person with extensive postings on the internet a 10 minute search points out is a Lefty, Righty, or a Nihilist why should we believe them on things that take months of research into highly secret areas that leaking information results in long term prison sentences? As far as I can tell they have done extensive research of speculation on the internet and printed it as something more - well yea, those are some of the more likely to be suspected but there are others. They are months behind reading comments here and seem to have about the same level of insight into the thing (which is nothing more than speculation).

Since I made sure I purchased one that I could do what I want on (several out there) quite good.

Nice thing about "open platform", "not locked to a walled garden", and "no need to jailbreak" is that you can serve all your customers. Some want the flexibility, others (as the iPhone people constantly tell us) like to be walled in and told what to do, some even like something in between. With Android I can get any of that, with iOS I get whatever Apple decides I want and nothing else.

So, I would say its going pretty good - how are those sales numbers of the iPhone going for all those that rant against Android?

You are posting to a public gateway and then are afraid that someone is treating that data as public - how dare they!

Really, it isn't private communications and, as such, there is no need for a warrant or anything for anyone to get at it. This is data mining, not spying, and is done all the time. I bet there is a web crawler somewhere on this planet that is "spying" on this post on slashdot too - there is no fourth amendment rights to information you broadcast to everyone on the planet, indeed I do not even see how there could be.

Only if you consider 3% market share "a lot". Indeed, the article quoted points out that Android is just slightly outside the margin of error to tie with Apple (rim at.3% higher market share is considered to be tied with either one due to margin of error). With respect to margin of errors both articles agree. However you may want to take a gander at the upper graph in the article linked, Android has 40.8% of new sales and iPhone at 26.9% - roughly a 14 point difference and that *is* major (indeed, at that different a rate the exact date in November of differences in sampling can certainly make enough difference for the discrepancy).

Not sure how that equates to the iPhone still in the lead by a lot, but oh well. Maybe all those people who were holding off purchasing an iPhone waiting on version 4 to come out are now going to rush out and save Apples Market share. Since we haven't seen that phenomenon happen yet (and a few months back it was *obvious* that was going to happen) it should within the next quarter. After all we were supposed to add those people in the last two quarters, might as well shift Apples market by them now too.

Of course it has to do with Apple - they disallow certain licenses. VLC isn't going to be able to have a different license for each OS it may run on nor should they have too. The stupid thing is that VLC ever made it on there in the first place - it isn't like it was a secret that their licenses were incompatible. Apple may have chosen to ignore this and it certainly looks like on of the developers pointed it out to Apple, but that doesn't make it VLC's fault.

If Microsoft were to decide that you aren't legally allowed to run any GPL software in Windows and then removed your ability too (except for the apps they decided to ignore the incompatibility) I'm fairly certain most here - including yourself - would be blaming Microsoft and not calling for the GPL to go away. That's exactly what Apple is doing, you have to run under a license that allows certain restrictions and the GPL doesn't. That Apple and some projects look the other way doesn't make it a non-issue, indeed with the way GPL works it is interesting that Apple could get in trouble by someone other than author who demands their rights under the GPL (further that they chose to enforce it on some project and not others makes another legal issue for them). Its more surprising that anything GPL made it on their store at all than that they took it off. However it is Apple's choice to limit the license that can be used with their store, not that a project decided to go with the GPL.

You may very well like Apple making this type of decision - obviously a number of people really love the idea of a Walled Garden (everyone of these threads will have someone talking about how great it is to not have that many choices), that is a totally other argument. However Apple clearly chose a license that is incompatible with the GPL. They probably didn't do so intentionally (well, kinda - their Walled Garden idea is anathema to the GPL's Open Garden - it is more a clash of ideas and not directed at GPL directly), but it was their choice to go with that license. Its also been there from the beginning so I don't see why so many are surprised, but that still doesn't remove Apples choice being the limiting factor here.

It is often not that simple - lawsuits also cost money and time for everyone. More than several companies use the fact that they have bigger pockets and can sue all they want as a weapon. In some cases it can be cheaper to create fear of a lawsuit than the amount of money lost through bad reviews. That's probably not very often and even if the person complaining is truly giving undeserved bad press it is usually worse to sue for it, but hey not everyone sees it that way (see the RIAA/MPAA for a great example). It isn't unreasonable to assume several thousand dollars in defense attorney fees.

There is very much a story about someone suing because someone gave them a bad review. Not sure what to do about it, but there is a story there.

The whole issue here is the implied consent, not having judges on site (which is what people here seem to be flipping out over).

These work like a normal DUI checkpoint. Most people have been through them. They have the road blocked, you drive up, they ask for you license. When you hand it to them they smell your breath and the car and shine a flashlight into your eyes to see how they dilate. If any of those offer probably cause they ask you to pull over and go through a sobriety check. Failing that they generally give a breathalyzer test and failing that you get arrested. You, through the fifth amendment, have a right to voluntarily refuse. They, through how our legal system work, then have a right to request a judge review the case and issue a warrant, usually for a blood test as you have no physical control of that (no warrant could make you blow through the tube hard). All of that is perfectly legal and has been since the US was first founded and, IMO is just fine.

Now, people who drive drunk often have tricks, most do not work. One of them that might maybe work is to simply refuse everything and wait for a judge to be consulted, review the case, issue the warrant, get a medical technician down there, and draw blood. A process that can even take a couple of hours on busy nights. During that time you metabolize alcohol and have a chance to fall below the legal limit, especially if you were barely over the limit to begin with.

The *only* difference is that the Judge and medical worker are on site. If, as stated in some of these articles Florida has some "implied consent" then the issue is there, not with this type of checkpoint. They could have a drunk tank collect up people, drive the to the county building, issue the warrants, and take blood already on the simple refusal. This isn't a change in law or a change in practice, it is a change in the amount of time needed. They make the argument (and again, this part is *not* new by any means) that by accepting your drivers license that you have already pre-agreed to take a breathalyzer test any time, anywhere, and for any reason. Not really sure though why you can't suddenly decide that to not be the case as you can certainly decide in a question by question case to exercise your fifth amendment rights, further the fourth amendment isn't a tiny one either and is fairly explicit about refusal not being evidence for a warrant. Obviously given the amount of time this has been in effect it either hasn't been challenged or has and some crazy judge found it constitutional. I suspect that a constitutional fight against an "implied consent" would win (but, as we have seen with our current courts the constitution is seen as a "living document" where the bigger question is can you rationalize it to say what you want it too so who knows), I suspect they know that, and like many other crappy laws they only enforce in places that they know they would not loose.

As for the Judge on site, many other states do them and its a pretty good idea. In most states they can't detain for refusal of the breathalyzer unless they have fairly strong probable cause - basically if they would have detained you and gotten blood before they still can. If the police have probable cause to require testing and given that the most accurate gathering of facts will occur this way it is quite within the intents of our judiciary system to do this. Further with the Judge on site they can personally oversee the idea of probable cause and the treatment of the detainees by the police. Lastly it certainly works well on the whole "speedy justice system". For everyone but the person that is only slightly over the legal limit who would have gotten away with it this is a win. There isn't a constitutional argument that it is his right for a slow gathering of facts simply because that would favor them.

I would bet Florida is on shaky grounds with it not because of the judge on site, but because implied consent is, well, stupid. Having a Judge on site is a pretty good idea IMO.

Personally I love it when people smugly complain about people complaining about smug. Even better when we do smug=smug+1 and prove that to be true (which is I guess what my post is). we can post these posts indefinitely and be useful!

I guess the real question is when does "smug" end?

For myself I consider this truly "smug" - that is people who are the primary source of pollution are projecting their issues on anyone they can rationalize as Teh Evil whilst doing nothing about the real issue. Yea, SUV's give out a higher proportion that than their usage would indicate, but when you are a small percentage of the usage it isn't going to make much difference. It is "smug" in that they hit an easy target that isn't going to do any good other than make people feel better about their choice that is the primary source of pollution yet allow them to continue doing what they have been doing. Even if they cut out *all* SUV driving it would be a drop in the bucket against the primary pollutant which they aren't going to touch with a 200 foot pole as too many will rebel against it (after all, you should be going against someone else as all those others are the ones that do not care - I *CARE* and that is worth a whole PILE of carbon credits and makes my greenhouse emissions be greatly cleaner!!!!!).

But yea, I guess I fear change and find myself a Slashtard. It *couldn't* be that, you know, I would like to see things actually change instead of give most people a warm fuzzy as we go into the abyss. But then isn't this France? Is there any entity on the planet that doesn't expect this behavior from them?

Really, as a movie it wasn't very good. It's plot was a strange combination of overused cliche's that were forced into a "modern" setting with much of it left up to the watcher to fill in. If you were technical enough with a good imagination you filled in the blanks to where you liked it, if not then it was just pretty graphics that even 5 years later didn't look that good. Even then most of the enjoyment was technical, not really to do with the story or cinematography.

I liked it and still do today, but I do so because someone somewhere in the process had a good combination of understanding of technology and decision making to force the confusing parts to be done anyway. It created a "realistic" (as much as you can say that) environment for a program to live in. For me the part I truly liked and still love watching is the interaction between Flynn and the Bit - it is one of the best pieces of cyberpunk moviedom out there. Of course part of that is that cyberpunk movies traditionally blow chunks.

I haven't seen the sequel yet - I fell on a patch of ice and injured my back before it came out and until I get the MRI done this Wednesday am not supposed to do that much movement. My guess is it is either the same things and will simply be a cult classic or they just raped the whole thing. It is VERY unlikely that they created something that appeals to such a strange and unforgiving market as the people who love the original Tron and those that watch movies now. Given that I'm one of the ones that liked the original I hope for a cult classic, but I figure they probably raped it.

A simple Words per Minute test also excludes a number of quite qualified programmers that I happen to belong too - Dyslexics. My WPM sucks royally, I can't spell to save my life. Were it not for the nice little red lines under words and the ability to right click and find a correct spelling (and it often takes a few attempts to get close enough) my posts would look like a strange five year old posted them (my handwriting looks like a three year old did - bad spelling *and* terrible penmanship). As is a a great deal of the strangely worded sentences are work arounds for the issue. There are times that I just can't even get close enough that the spell/grammar checker can figure out what I want.

I type quite quickly if one were to count "typo's" as only things I didn't mean to hit. That is, the myriad "thier" was intentional and thus not a reduction against my WPM. Indeed, in every job I have had even the secretaries comment on how fast I type, yet I get a TON of red underlines. Were most of them not simply my inability to spell that would be OK, indeed I know the vast majority of times I mis-hit keys (and backspace them out), but that doesn't matter when you have a severe difficulty in telling "their" from "thier" if not for the red underlines the spell checker added.

And yes, this makes weakly typed languages a real pain if they get to be any size at all. However, for the most part it is so common an error outside of when I was first learning it is quickly checked with other automated tools.

Nifty things - I always wondered why the RC aircraft people never really got into this. The technology can't be that tough to do and there looks to be quite a bit of fun involved. As pretty as this was in a city I would *love* to see a number of rural recording through some of the mountainous regions or night flying. Whilst I have a fairly severe fear of heights I normally still request a window seat on air planes because the anxiety is generally worth the view, I've tried to take pictures but commercial airliners windows aren't optimized for taking them. Were I to guess I would have said money is the primary reason - but well I know more than a few into the larger scale RC planes and money isn't their primary concern (many have more invested than they would for a decent car and the *know* at some point it is going to crash). They have all just looked at me like I was crazy when I asked.

I'm also surprised he got permission (and, for the moment, I'll ignore the 900lb gorilla of our current clamp downs) and note that there are two types of RC planes - those that have crashed and burned and those that will. As such even in rural areas if you are going to go outside of a really small range (basically around your own house) you have to go to specific areas designated for them. It's not just other aircraft (it would be...bad... if a real airplane hit one of these where it wasn't supposed to be) but they are where people normally aren't so they do not crash on unsuspecting heads. Most of those areas in the film are not that - they are dense urban areas. Whilst the footage is neat, had there been one of the not so rare glitches and someone that was simply walking down a street got killed for it, not so much. The video shows more than one place this would *not* have been an unlikely scenario. Heck they keep manned aircraft that are MUCH more stable limited for that reason too.

Not that I'm against this being in our hands, but just that NYC may not be the best place for fly overs:) (lots of really nice non-urban areas).

There is an old statement out there about it that has been around in one form another for - well - about as long as people have been around.

I'll tell it the way I first heard it (late 80's): "A death of another is comedy, a paper cut on my finger is a tragedy".

That pretty much sums up a great deal of our attitudes going on now. DDoS someone you do not like and it is Power to the People, the only way we can fight back, how *dare* you prosecute them. DDoS someone we like and where are the feds, these people need decades in jail as it is obvious these are private servers - this is a travesty and is near treason!!!! Further I think this attitude is *not* seen as being in conflict with itself and most are confused others do not share it, it isn't a convenient argument but is a truly held belief.

Personally I think what will eventually be seen is that civilization only moves forward faster than its core principles do. This means that whilst the core principles move forward in the long run, short term we move ahead, collapse back behind them, and then move ahead of them again. While that average moves forward at a nice smooth pace the actual in this moment level of civilization swings back and forth. I think we are nearing a swing backwards as these ideas need to be truly internalized and not rationalized to whatever the individual wants at the moment.

Electric cars aren't the fist industry to be effected by this. They aren't the first electric vehicles around pedestrians in the wild, nor are they they first to find too silent means people get run over.

Ever wonder why so many electric vehicles make that nice annoying beeping when backing up (say, forklifts and such)? That is because so many people got backed over and severely injured even with alert drivers. Tire noise? Yea, that will work in so many places where the noise (even if everyone was electric) is high enough you can't hear the gravel crunching (and woe be to any place that smooths surfaces). Want to have to driver watch - do you *really* want the guy with 4 hours of sleep last night and two beers being the primary responsibility you can walk the rest of your life (again note that tire noise isn't that loud when in most public places)? It may be a moral victory that he was in the wrong, but I would rather have working legs than a moral victory and needing to navigate by pushing a small rod with my tongue.

I've been in more than one place where an electric vehicle pulls up behind me and the drivers voice makes me jump. They have been with cars, forklifts, and simple golf carts. The only ones that have ever truly scared me are the cars - they have been the only ones that *both* of us jumped when it was noticed (and in all cases they were backing - I'm not counting someone focused and alert trying to scare me, those are irritating but not severe accidents due to accidental circumstances). The others all had audible cues when they were moving in any way other than forward, even then being the person outside the reinforced steel cage I wish they had some audible cue they were moving. Whilst I've certainly been one inside of said cage (that is - driving forward whilst alert in an attempt to make someone jump), I've also felt the idea of if the driver had been distracted and rolled a 2 ton monstrosity over me due to inattention so we could be extra quite to be, well, not really a good idea. I rather suspect that most people would feel the same way - that a life in a wheel chair (and I have to note that this is being optimistic and assuming you live through the accident) wasn't worth everyone else not hearing a slight hum.

But hey - lots of people here do not want that noise!!!!

Quite is certainly good and a reduction in noise pollution is certainly a plus for electrics (and hybrids - where most of us have experience with a vehicle running under electric power). Yet one can get too quite when you are talking a high fraction of a metric ton (or usually greater) moving at speeds enough to kill. Tire noise isn't that much and with most electrics that is all you get. Even were it only the blind I would argue for it, however for those of us gifted with sight we *still* use our ears more than our eyes for situational awareness. There isn't *anyone* on this planet that this wouldn't benefit.

Really - does *anyone* out there but Iran want them to have nuclear weapons? Is there a country out there that doesn't at least have one or two decent enough engineers to do this type of work? While many of their engineers may not be immediately trained to do this type of work it isn't *that* hard to do. After all, look at the number of teenagers that do it - they aren't that worldly and have a vast knowledge of the world that a 30+ year old does, they just have motivation to do it. Most then age into engineers that do not do that type of work but excel in more mainstream activities - it isn't like that ability goes away either.

Well, I guess Uzbekistan is probably pretty low on the list, but I bet you can't come up with a country that doesn't at least have two or three capable of doing this (which is all it would take) and would not like to find Iran with a nuclear arsenal. Indeed, I would be happy if it *were* the US that did this as it would be uncharacteristically competent of them. I'll buy Russia or China well before even Israel for the same reason - they would have had to have been hit with the Clue Bat to get this to work out and not be leaked by this point (and no, this has nothing to do with Wikileaks as that has tended to be more an isolated incident that is stirring up all the traffic - though there is a good joke there about secrecy). I would look to, as you say, countries that specialize in this type of thing and that is mostly a short list - however it isn't *that* hard either so I wouldn't limit it to them.